To top it off, the firearms registry is responsible for draining precious resources that could otherwise be used to prevent domestic abuse.

Statistics Canada’s 2008 report on Family Violence shows only 40 of over 38,000 incidents of domestic violence involved firearms. In other words, 99.92% of spousal assaults didn’t involve guns. In instances where spousal abuse involved physical violence, firearms were used against women 34 times and against men 6 times out of over 17,000 violent assaults.

According to the Canadian Center for Justice Statistics, the total spending for shelters in 2006 totaled $317 million. In the same year the government spent $82 million on the firearms program.

The 2007 Commissioner of Firearms report states that 70 of the 1,758 firearms license revocations that year were the result of domestic violence. At the end of 2007 there were 1,877,880 individuals licenses to own firearms in Canada.

The numbers translate to a rate of 3.7 revocations per 100,000 gun owners.

The 2006 Census reports there were over 31.6 million people in Canada resulting in a rate of 120.2 incidents of domestic violence per 100,000 population and 53.7 violent assaults per 100,000 population.

In other words, firearms owners are between 14.5 and 32.5 times less likely to commit domestic violence. Yet responsible firearms owners continue to be demonized as ”potential” abusers by registry supporters.

While we must be vocal in condemning all forms of domestic violence, spending a disproportionate amount of limited tax dollars to achieve a relatively meager reduction in the rate of domestic violence seems counterintuitive.

Certainly, the bulk of victims of spousal abuse would benefit more from expanded shelter space and increased funding for existing programs than they do from government spending millions of dollars to maintain a list of firearms. Scrapping the registry will not do away with firearms licensing, the main tool police use to revoke firearms ownership.

Scrapping the registry also won’t make women more likely to be abused. If anything, it will free up tax dollars for programs that make a real difference in keeping Canadians safe.

But don’t take my word for it, look up the stats yourself:

• Statistics Canada – Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile 2008 – Stats for domestic violence in 2006.
• Juristat – Canada’s shelters for abused women, 2005/2006 – budgets for 2005/2006 spending on women’s shelters.
• Treasury Board – RPP 2005-2006 Canada Firearms Centre – 2006 budget for Firearms Center.
• Commissioner of Firearms Reports.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

I don’t think there’s anything I can add to last year’s post, so I will repost it.

Two minutes. At the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month.

Its a trifling sum to pay for the countless ranks of Canada’s sons and daughters in distant graveyards and under forgotten battlefields. But it is, remarkably, the only price asked for such monumental sacrifice.

Every year the dwindling ranks of veterans turn out in force to mark Remembrance Day. Every year there are fewer men marching, fewer men standing at attention. Fewer men who carry the weight in their hearts of seeing the horrors on the bloody shores of Europe, the frozen wastelands of Korea, and of the carnage of dozens of other places we seem to forget too quickly.

Lest we forget.

We are the last generation that will have known the veterans of the First World War. With time the same will be true for veterans of the Second World War.

The freedom we so often take for granted was paid for most dearly. The payment asked in return is modest; the debt is worth repaying.

At the going down of the sun, we will remember them.

We will remember. We will always remember.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYlrrAWCTRg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8gRx8tWJmI

Talk of trouble is sent through the country
And we need an army
To fight for the right
Young men enlist and are sent to the battle
To fight the offender and help our allies

And the young men cry Oh Canada
Well gladly go and fight for thee
And the young men cry Oh Canada
Well fight to keep you free

The battles raging
Gun fire is blazing
A tired young soldier is clinging to life
Hes ordered off
And obeys by advancing
No hope of returning from the enemy fire

And the soldier cries Oh Canada
If it must be so, Ill die for thee
And the soldier cries Oh Canada
Ill die to keep you free

And we all miss oh Canada
The land where we all used to be
And we all long for Canada
The true north
strong and free

And the soldier cries Oh Canada
If it must be so, Ill die for thee
And the soldier cries Oh Canada
Ill die to keep you free

Far away we had seen a great danger
And yet theres a danger much greater within
The noise we make as we constantly bicker
Would hush not a whisper if we listen to him

All the thousands cry Oh Canada
Is that why we have died for thee?
And the soldiers cry Oh Canada
We died to keep you free

And the soldier cries oh Canada
Be true
And strong
For me

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDMzHlkB-Yg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=De2wciCy07U

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4NtSqZcT_4

Thank you.

I’d like to thank everyone who sent me notes of concern. I look forward to getting back to blogging, and to your comments.

Its a trifling sum to pay for the countless ranks of Canada’s sons and daughters in distant graveyards and under forgotten battlefields. But it is, remarkably, the only price asked for such monumental sacrifice.

Every year the dwindling ranks of veterans turn out in force to mark Remembrance Day. Every year there are fewer men marching, fewer men standing at attention. Fewer men who carry the weight in their hearts of seeing the horrors on the bloody shores of Europe, the frozen wastelands of Korea, and of the carnage of dozens of other places we seem to forget too quickly.

Lest we forget.

We are the last generation that will have known the veterans of the First World War. With time the same will be true for veterans of the Second World War. 

The freedom we so often take for granted was paid for most dearly. The payment asked in return is modest; the debt is worth repaying.

At the going down of the sun, we will remember them.

We will remember. We will always remember.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8gRx8tWJmI

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYlrrAWCTRg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDMzHlkB-Yg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=De2wciCy07U

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4NtSqZcT_4

Thank you.